Renegade Rodian
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To flesh out an arm of the Helix Syndicate’s operations.
- Image Source: Ship Radar from freevector.co
- Role: Information Brokers, Spies
- Links: N/A
- Group Name: The Monitors
- Classification: Criminal Organization, sub-group of the Helix Syndicate
- Headquarters: Fort Amaranth
- Loyalties: Helix Syndicate
- Group Sigil: The signature Syndicate circle, with a radar symbol in the middle.
- Hierarchy: The Monitors as an organization are first divided into six different groups called Towers. The head of each Tower is known as a Warden, who overseers and coordinates all operations in their purview. Below each Warden are a series of Overseers, Handlers, and Agents.
- Membership: When an information broker becomes well-established in the Pentastar Alignment, they end up working for the Helix Syndicate. Whether this is done willingly or by coercion is irrelevant, as those who pass up on the offer are exiled from the region or killed. Those who stay and cooperate with the Syndicate become Monitors, are assigned to a Tower, and gain access to the Syndicate’s resources and protection.
- Doctrines:
To proliferate the Helix Syndicate’s network of spies and informants throughout the Pentastar Alignment. - To monitor all potential organizations, persons, and activities of interest in the Pentastar Alignment.
- To ensure all information and intelligence collected by the Helix Syndicate is accurate.
[*]Curios: It’s become a trend among the highest ranking members of the Monitors to get an eye tattooed on their ankle. No one is quite sure how this practice came to be, but it’s confinement to the upper (and therefore more illusive) ranks has so far not generated any problems for the organization.
MEMBERS
The Helix Syndicate employs several thousand people as part of the Monitors, who in turn generally have their own workforce of career informants, spies, and slicers. Monitors are a varied bunch, making up a wide range of species. Many of them were inducted into the organization from prior information networks, some more willingly than others. Whatever the case, they are all uniform in being well-connected infochants based somewhere in the Pentastar Alignment. Once a member of the Monitors, there are three possible ranks, not counting the Wardens. These ranks are based on the pervasiveness of the intelligence network they operate.
- Agents have small but robust networks, typically encompassing either a region on a planet or an entire planet.
- Handlers have networks that cover several different planets within the same sector, typically through a series of Agents they command.
- Overseers have networks that cover entire swaths of a sector or sectors, typically through a series of Handlers that they command.
Monitors are further divided into six organizational divisions known as “towers.” Towers are not divided by region or sector, but rather by their intended targets and spheres. For instance, Tower One focuses its efforts on collecting information pertaining to corporate affairs and powerful businessmen, while Tower Two concerns itself with government organizations and figures. Towers vary in size depending on their operational needs and the availability of their chosen targets. For example, Tower Five being the smallest and Tower Four being the largest.
Each tower is overseen by a Warden. Wardens are appointed not based on how big their intelligence network is, but by how capable they are of managing large groups of Overseers, Handlers, and Agents, and how effectively they can coordinate such complex intelligence gathering operations. It's not the size of the spy boat, but the motion of the spy ocean, so to speak. Are you really going to read this whole thing? It's only going to get worse.
- Tower One: The Pentastar Alignment is a major commercial and industrial region, so it should come as little surprise that the first Tower is organized around keeping track of these affairs. Tower One collects data and intelligence on the corporations and prominent businessmen of the Alignment. They are especially interested in using this data to predict shifts in the economy, selling this information for tremendous value to the same people they regularly spy on.
- Tower Two: Top-down Imperial governance has always been the most prevalent style in the Pentastar Alignment. This is especially useful to the Monitors, as it makes it easier to sow the seeds of corruption and gather intelligence as a result. Tower Two monitors the affairs of planetary governments, politicians, judicial bodies, and bureaucrats. Planetary defense forces and local law enforcement are not exempt from the machinations of the second Tower either, being twisted to serve their ends and accrue more influence.
- Tower Three: The criminal underworld of the Pentastar Alignment is a lucrative place, not to mention the home of most of the Syndicate’s would-be usurpers. Special attention is thus paid by Tower Three to make sure the activities of the most prominent underworld figures and organizations outside of the Syndicate’s control are closely observed… Or even tactically manipulated into aligning with the Syndicate’s cause.
- Tower Four: It is a common misconception that the average person, bereft of colossal debt, has nothing to fear from the Syndicate. Tower Four surveys the affairs of the Pentastar Alignment’s teeming masses. Data is automatically collected on individuals, profiles compiled and stored. Not everyone needs to wield substantial economic, political, or underworld power to be of use to the Syndicate. Sometimes a dissatisfied flunky within the right organization, at the right time, can do more to further the Syndicate’s agenda than a legion of high-ranking executives.
- Tower Five: Tower Five concerns itself with the interplanetary affairs of the Sith Empire, though only as it pertains to the Pentastar Alignment. Their efforts are concentrated mostly on building a working relationship with the Eye of Truth. Many Sith Castellans, Sith Justiciars, and other agents of the Eye of Truth find themselves connected to the labyrinthine networks of the Monitors. It is a begrudging, barter-based relationship at best - these Sith approach Monitors for helpful intelligence and are then expected to provide it in return. Owing to Sith bullheadedness, not many of them play ball with the Monitors. But the Syndicate doesn’t need many to accomplish its aims in the Pentastar Alignment or collect intelligence on the Sith. A few will do just fine.
- Tower Command: The sixth and final Tower, the one that rules them all. Tower Command resolves disputes among the Towers, settles scores, and makes sure everyone does their jobs. In addition to handling the administrative duties of the entire Monitor network, Tower Command spends most of its time verifying and corroborating the intelligence reports of other Towers. The Syndicate does not tolerate bad intelligence from bad informants.
The Syndicate’s Monitors are far from cohesive. There is active turmoil and aggressive competition among individual Monitors, usually as it pertains to keeping their sources exclusive and attempting to gain new ones. Competition between Towers is also quite fierce, as there will always be instances where the lines between their respective areas of focus are blurred. For instance, a government official with extensive ties to a spice cartel.
Internal power struggles among the Monitors aren’t violent, but they do tend to be messy and disruptive. Tower Command’s executive authority is enforced by the rest of the Syndicate, however, and so their rulings on disputes are final. Order is maintained, but it is a tenuous one, and infighting often sinks to the background rather than disappear entirely.
Only the Wardens know the exact number of full-fledged Monitors under their command at any given time. Aliases and call-signs are kept instead of other records, and oftentimes even the Wardens won’t know the actual names and histories of the people working under them. This information is kept intentionally beyond even the highest authorities in the Syndicate. If it were ever compromised, the results would be far from enjoyable.
Some Monitors have combat experience, others don’t. Their methodologies and origins differ - some prefer remote, digital intelligence gathering. Others like to get their hands dirty, putting on cloaks and following people around. The latter are more likely to have some small skill with holdout blasters and vibro-daggers than the former, but they’re still a far cry from professional soldiers. Anyone who’s managed to become a Monitor is smart enough to prefer avoiding firefights, but hey, sometimes accidents happen. Many Monitors additionally choose to undergo cybernetic augmentation, either to better interface with technology or to better safeguard their secrets.
Monitors rarely interact with other members of the Helix Syndicate outside of their command structure. Any information they recover is sent directly to the Wardens, who then pass it along to the elements of the Syndicate that either requested it or might otherwise find it useful. Monitors do not have uniforms, and so few in the Syndicate are aware of what they look like. They only know that they exist in some capacity, and seem to be responsible for the inordinate amounts of blackmail and intelligence brokering the Syndicate likes to engage in.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Information brokers, informants, and spies have always been part of the Helix Syndicate’s most important operators. But it’s only recently they adopted the structure and organization of the Monitors. For years, the Syndicate had passively added personnel to its intelligence-gathering core as it expanded throughout the Pentastar Alignment.
As their hold over the Alignment’s underworld became less and less susceptible to dispute, the Syndicate began to more aggressively add more informants to their ranks. The ones who refused to join found their operations drying up. If they managed to continue their business despite concerted efforts at sabotage, they were killed.
This brutal policy drove away the recalcitrant and brought the wise into the fold. But the disorganized nature of the whole affair eventually caught up to the Syndicate. There was overlap, which lead to disputes, which led to infighting, which led to conflicting reports… And that meant the Syndicate’s entire organic intelligence gathering operation was compromised.
The troublemakers were killed and replaced. And new leadership stepped in to institute the necessary reforms. The Monitors were born from this reshuffling of surviving assets. Disputes are still common, but now that the Syndicate is more involved with the day-to-day activities of its organic intelligence network, they’re less likely to spiral out of control.
And they all spied happily ever after.
